More than 75% of Victoria residents don’t feel safe downtown at night: Victoria PD survey

A new survey out of Victoria shows the majority of local residents don’t feel safe in the city’s downtown after dark.

The Victoria Police Department survey found that 79 per cent of those who participated in the survey feel unsafe in the downtown core at night, and 37 per cent said they don’t even feel safe during the day.

More than half of respondents, 52 per cent, said their perception of crime within the city increased while 26 per cent said they’ve also been the victim of crime in the past five years.

“Victoria does have the highest crime severity index for a municipally policed municipality in British Columbia. Our crime severity index is 138. That’s higher than Vancouver,” Bowen Osoko said, a Victoria Police Department spokesperson.

“That’s higher than any other municipality police department. It’s also higher than Surrey, for example, who is way above the B.C. average as well.”

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The surveys were sent out at random to 5000 residents of Victoria and Esquimalt.

A number of “problems” the city is facing was posed to the survey participants.

The number one “problem” residents would like to see addressed better was “homelessness” at 18 per cent followed by “mental health” at 16 per cent.

More than 1,300 people completed the questionnaire.

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